Looking Back

What The Wave Said…

10 Years Ago…

The portion of the former LILCO MGP site that once housed an electrical substation is one of four areas in the site that contain toxic chemicals. KeySpan Energy and the Department of Environmental Conservation are moving through a process that will eventually lead to the cleaning of the site. The process has now been going on for four years.

A wrecked automobile, note chrome bumper on the right, and other interesting items were pulled from the water in front of the Beach Channel High School boat ramp on Wednesday afternoon. Work at the ramp, which was closed for all of last year, has boaters hoping for a re-opening sometime soon.

M.S. 180 students recently visited African Burial Grounds in lower Manhattan, as part of an investigation in forensic studies. Many of the students in the eighth grade graduating class asked questions concerning the discovery of this site.

30 Years Ago...

Anticipate nudity at Riis Beach this summer. Sources in the Gateway National Recreation Area, which have asked not to be revealed, are pointing out that refusals by the United States attorney in this area to prosecute nudity are expected to hamper the ability of Gateway personnel to control such behavior, particularly in Jacob Riis Park which for years was a nudist haven.

Material to be dredged from Jamaica Bay will be transported to the new “mud dump site” about 12 miles offshore. The United States Army Corps of Engineers published details of the project.

Congressman Joseph P. Addabbo is sponsoring a Jamaica Bay environmental conference to explore problems and implications of urban ecosystem revitalization. The event will take place at Queens College.

Two portions of Rockaway Beach (35 blocks in all) will be closed during July and August so sand can be replenished. This fact was confirmed this week by Charles J. Rooney, who is listed by the Department of the Army New York District Corps of Engineers as project manager.

It was a routine mission for a Coast Guard launch commanded by Boatswain’s Mate Third Class Tim Melchionne stationed in Rockaway, but the woman’s aim to sail her small homemade boat to Africa made it a story that drew wide attention. It happened about three and one-half miles off Rockaway. The Coast Guard found the 41-year-old woman aboard a 19-footer, on which she had been living for seven months.

40 Years Ago...

Complaints are mounting about the general disorder on Beach 115th Street where older persons in particular report being molested and roughed up by youths who seem to have no qualms about acting like hoodlums.

In spite of its awning tilting precariously, fishermen are attracted to the upper deck of the abandoned steamer Catskill, as a vantage point from which to cast their lines into the bay.

Edgar Woods, longtime Arverne resident, is being congratulated on being named as manager of the First National City Bank’s Rockaway branch, which will open next week in the Waldbaum’s shopping center.

The daylight robbery at gunpoint in Neiman’s Pharmacy on Beach 129th Street has caused a furor in Belle Harbor and demands for better police protection.

Conferences were held this week for the purpose of effecting complete cooperation between the New York City Police Department and the rangers assigned to Gateway National Park.

There is a noticeable reduction in the graffiti one sees these days on the subway cars passing over the Rockaway line.

50 Years Ago...

Residents of Beach 63rd Street between Beach Channel Drive and the Rockaway Freeway, now entirely built up, are wondering how long they will have to wait to have the street on their block paved.

Harry Zeitlin and Harold Garvin have broken ground for their new drive-in refreshment stand on Beach Channel Drive, opposite The Wave’s new building at Beach 75th Street.

When Armed Forces Day comes along don’t overlook the opportunity to visit Fort Tilden and the New York Naval Air Station at Floyd Bennett Field where preparations are now under way to present interesting programs for visitors.

Postal employees in the Rockaway Beach station are speculating about better conditions, such as more room, in the new building for the station, now under construction on the site of the Rivoli Theatre.

60 Years Ago...

The Rockaway Civic Club warned this week that the decision of the Board of Estimate to postpone action on the proposed zone change in Belle Harbor does not mean the change will not be effected.

The Edgemere Civic Association will erect a bronze plaque in tribute to the service men and women of Edgemere. Borough President James A. Lundy has been invited to officiate at the dedication.

Alarmed by roving gangs of hoodlums in Rockaway Park streets after sundown, the Rockaway Park Businessmen’s Association appealed to the city this week for additional foot patrolmen in the areas. Store windows have been broken, property defaced and other acts of vandalism have occurred recently.

The tall blonde man sought by police since the hold-up at Moulded Plastic Company in Arverne walked into their hands after an unsuccessful attempt to hold up the Park Inn Hotel. He called the 100 Precinct to surrender, but was arrested by an alert patrolman.

The Wave’s archives were largely lost to Hurricane Sandy. But through piecing together online sources, we are once again able to present this feature.

There may be some gaps in the record, some years may be missing, but here’s…